Sherri Hodies, Supervisor of Elections for Monroe County, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about elections.
Elections are important and students in our schools got a first-hand look at that.
Hodies said, “It has been awesome. Last week, on Monday, we went to the Marathon High School, and then Wednesday, Coral Shores, and then just this week, Monday, we were at the Key West High School, and just hats off to Caroline Bleske from the district, who worked with my manager, Rachel Harris up in Marathon. Ed Tierney was a huge part of all of this, so we thank him as well. And then, of course, all the teachers and most importantly, the students, these high school students that we spoke to. In total, it was around 450 students we spoke to. They were so supportive of this process. They are so educated and and just so empowered to want to go out and vote. Very respectful kids, and we just had a great time with them.”
What types of things were discussed with the students?
Hodies said, “We had a slide show speaking about the importance of voting for the future, giving them examples of what could happen if they don’t get out and vote. Different positions, different referendums that have maybe passed or failed by just a few votes because people didn’t get out to vote. We also talked about is it correct that we will know the will of the people if only 10% go out and vote, or 50% go out to vote? And boy, they knew that answer right away. They said, absolutely not. And the more people that go out to vote, the more of the will of the people will be heard and they understood that. The teachers are doing an excellent job in history, government, civics. We also talked about in World War II, who gave them this precious gift to vote, who allowed us to continue to be free. And for these students, who were born around 2008 you would have to go clear back to their great, great grandparents, born around 1920 to really understand who gave them this precious gift, and now who do they want to give this precious gift to to make their rules? So it was very interesting. They were very engrossed in it all. They asked excellent questions, and I was just absolutely thrilled that we were able to go out and speak to these future voters. They asked such great questions, and when I was talking about ancestry, they’re like, we don’t know who our great, great grandparents are. We’ve never even seen some of them, had never even seen a picture of them. So out of around 450 students that we spoke to, 120 signed up to vote. And that is amazing. We’re talking like 27%, 28%. A lot of them had already signed up at 16 and 17 at the DMV when they went to go get their license. So motor voter law is still working well, because those would be 16 and 17 year olds that can sign up as pre registered voters.”
Discussing the importance of voting can never begin too early.
Hodies said, “They are just very respectful. Kids were quiet, were listening to everything. You could just really tell how engaged they were. And the teachers were there, and I asked the teachers, and they said, wow, these kids are so quiet, and they really were engaged in what was going on. So a lot of great support with the teachers throughout all three schools. And everything has been uploaded in video style onto Instagram, Facebook, Vimeo, with our social media platforms that we have, and I think all the schools also did it on their social media platforms.”
Did the students have any common questions for you during these sessions?
Hodies said, “Really great questions, which all of us need to remember this. If you sign up to vote, if you register to vote as something, anything different than Republican or Democrat, when you get to the primary, you will only get a non partisan position ballot, so you will get to vote on the judges, your local government and the school board and your referendums, but you will not be able to vote for any Republican or Democrat candidates that are running for the other 25, 26 positions that are out there. So I gave a really good example if mom is running as a Democrat candidate for governor, and you are an NPA in the primary, you will not be able to vote for mom, and NPA stands for no party affiliate. So if you’re an independent, no party affiliate, any of the other parties other than Republican and Democrat, and that’s how you register to vote, then you will only be able to vote for non party driven positions like the ones I just mentioned. A lot of people don’t know that. Now in the general you as a non party affiliate can vote any way you want. A Republican can vote for a Democrat, a Democrat can vote for a Republican. No party associated voters can vote for whoever they want. But in a primary, Florida is a closed primary state, so therefore, if it’s party driven, that is, you won’t be able to vote for those parties. Just make sure we get out to vote. August 18 is the primary, and then two weeks before that is early voting.”
For more information, click here: https://www.votemonroeflkeys.gov/